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Southern California winds to raise fire danger

AP with KPCC staff

In this file photo, a burned-over bluff still smoulders and traffic on Pacific Coast Highway is jammed in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014, after a fire threatened bluff top homes. The National Weather Service says red flag warnings will be in effect Wednesday morning through afternoon as a spate of dry, gusty winds raises the fire danger. Reed Saxon/AP

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Southern California is in for a spate of dry, gusty winds that will raise fire danger.

The National Weather Service says red flag warnings will be in effect Wednesday morning through afternoon.

"It won't be quite as warm as what people might expect, say, if we had an offshore event like this in September — temperatures would be in the 90s. But we really only expect temperatures to get into the 70s," NWS meteorologist Philip Gonsalves told KPCC.

Meteorologists say the winds will rise as a trough of low pressure near Idaho drops south into eastern California, creating moderate to strong offshore flow through Thursday.

Warnings will encompass all of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as well as up the coast through the interiors of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Humidity levels will fall to withering levels below 15 percent.

Forecasters say sustained winds will blow at around 40 mph with gusts to 65 mph, bringing potential for extreme fire behavior if a fire starts.